The island is about 6.4 km long and 3.2 km wide.Several U.S. presidents have visited Key West. Harry Truman visited for 175 days on 11 visits during his presidency and visited several times after he left office.

Dwight D. Eisenhower stayed in Key West following a heart attack. In November 1962, John F. Kennedy visited Key West a month after the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Jimmy Carter held a family reunion in Key West after leaving office.

Numerous artists and writers have passed through Key West, but the two most associated with the island are Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams. Ernest Hemingway wrote A Farewell to Arms while living in Key West.

“Little White House” in Key West was the winter White House for President Harry Truman.

In 1991, the house opened as a state historic site & museum. In April, 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell opened a week of OSCE peace talks, led by Minsk Group Co-Chairman Carey Cavanaugh between President Robert Kocharyan of Armenia and Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan.

In January 2005, former President Bill Clinton and his wife, then Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, spent a weekend relaxing at the house.